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00:00At all of our churches, for those of you that are believers,
00:03you're followers of Jesus,
00:04would you take a moment and raise your hand
00:07if you believe in the power of prayer?
00:10Raise your hand high if you believe in the power of prayer.
00:12Online, you can type in the comment section,
00:13I believe in the power of prayer.
00:15Leave them up, I believe in the power of prayer.
00:17Go ahead and put them down if you will,
00:18and I wanna ask you another question.
00:21How many of you know you should probably pray more?
00:24Raise your hands.
00:25Interesting, right?
00:26Check it out, that's kind of funny to me.
00:28Like all of us, if we're followers of Jesus,
00:31we really do believe in a God who hears
00:34and responds to our faith,
00:36and yet almost all of us would say,
00:38we really should be more engaged talking to
00:42and praying to God.
00:45More on prayer in just a moment.
00:48What I wanna do is I wanna review where we've been.
00:50We're in a message series through the book of Jonah.
00:52Last week, we looked at Jonah chapter one,
00:54and we looked at what we might call a reluctant prophet.
00:59If you remember in verse one,
01:00the word of the Lord came to Jonah and said,
01:02go and preach to the people of Nineveh,
01:04those wicked people, their wickedness has come before me.
01:07And basically, God said to Jonah, go.
01:12And Jonah said, no.
01:15So God said, whoa.
01:19You like that?
01:19I made it up myself.
01:20Actually, I probably didn't even make it up.
01:22I probably saw it somewhere,
01:23but God told him to go to Nineveh and preach,
01:26and Jonah instead found a ship
01:30and went as far as he could in the other direction.
01:32In fact, I wanna show you the map again,
01:34just so you'll get it.
01:36He was in Joppa.
01:37God said, go east, and then about 550 miles,
01:40he didn't go east, he went the other way on a ship,
01:432,500 miles, as far as he could in the other direction.
01:47And we learned the principle of that last week.
01:50If you wanna run from God,
01:52the devil will always offer you a ride.
01:55You can always find a ship sailing in the wrong direction.
02:01So Jonah's on this boat,
02:03and God sends this really big storm.
02:06Now I'm gonna show you a storm.
02:07We're not gonna leave it up there long
02:08because last week we found out some of you got seasick.
02:12So hang on, I'll go fast.
02:13So there's a storm about to tear apart the boat,
02:17and Jonah says, it's my fault.
02:19Throw me overboard.
02:20And the sailors who didn't wanna do it,
02:22they tried everything else possible,
02:24but they realized it was Jonah's fault,
02:25so they threw Jonah overboard.
02:27And when they did, the storm completely went calm.
02:31And all of the sailors looked on and said, oh my gosh,
02:35if God can do that, we wanna know that God,
02:37we wanna serve that God.
02:40And they turned their hearts to God.
02:41Good news for them,
02:43but Jonah was still all alone in the ocean.
02:46And it looks very, very hopeless for him.
02:49And so there Jonah is overboard
02:52because he was disobeying God.
02:54And there's an unusual verse at the end of chapter one.
02:57We didn't look at it last week.
02:58I saved it for you this week,
03:00but there's this unusual verse that says this.
03:02Now, the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah,
03:08and Jonah was in the belly of the fish
03:10for three days and three nights.
03:13Let's make sure we understand where we are.
03:16Chapter one, Jonah ran from God.
03:19Now he's down in the belly of the fish.
03:22Chapter two, Jonah prayed to God.
03:25Jonah 2.1 tells us this.
03:27From inside the fish, what did Jonah do?
03:31Everybody say it aloud.
03:32Jonah prayed to the Lord.
03:35What did Jonah do?
03:36Jonah prayed.
03:37You can type it in online in the comment section.
03:39Jonah prayed.
03:42Chapter one, Jonah runs.
03:44That's the summary.
03:45Chapter two, Jonah prays.
03:48That's the summary.
03:49At this time, I would normally announce my title,
03:53but there were so many good options,
03:55I couldn't figure out which one to use.
03:57Jonah praying from a fish.
04:00There are so many possibilities,
04:01so I thought just for fun, maybe you guys could help me.
04:05You wanna just vote?
04:06Which title do you want?
04:07I'll give you the titles.
04:08The first one is fishy prayers.
04:11How do you like that?
04:12I mean, there's so many.
04:13The second one is deep sea drama.
04:17The third one is a whale of a prayer.
04:20I need you to vote online.
04:21I need people here to make some noise.
04:23Raise your hands.
04:23Fishy prayers, fishy prayers.
04:26Deep sea drama, a whale of a prayer.
04:31And the title of today's message is a whale of a prayer.
04:36Let's look at the text again.
04:38The very last verse of chapter one,
04:43Jonah ran from the Lord,
04:45and who is the main character of the book of Jonah?
04:47The main character is the Lord, the Lord.
04:50And the very last verse of chapter one says this.
04:55The Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.
05:01That's funny to me.
05:03Can I be real with y'all?
05:05If I'm on a cruise ship with Amy,
05:09and let's say I get drunk on cookies,
05:11because I don't drink out, I ate too many, whatever.
05:16It gets rocky.
05:17I fall off the boat.
05:18I'm in the water.
05:20If I'm overboard on a cruise,
05:23I am not hoping for a big fish, right?
05:27If the Lord's gonna provide something,
05:29I'm thinking like the Lord provided a life jacket.
05:34The Lord provided a dinghy boat with someone to pull me in.
05:38The Lord provided an island.
05:40I don't know.
05:41The Lord provided a mermaid, an ugly mermaid,
05:44an average looking mermaid, one that can swim,
05:46just making sure you're okay with it.
05:48The Lord didn't provide a big fish.
05:50I mean, if you're in the middle of the ocean,
05:52and this something like a whale swallows you,
05:56that doesn't feel like a praise report, right?
06:00Come on, you guys are acting like,
06:01oh yeah, praise the Lord, I'm in a fish, okay?
06:03That feels like a punishment.
06:06If I'm in the middle of this,
06:07like I don't even know what's in the middle of a fish,
06:10like fish juice, fish acid, fish belly, fish guts,
06:13fish dead other fish, you know, I don't know.
06:17I'm thinking like, God, why did you let this happen?
06:20Why in the world am I going through this?
06:24And if we can take a little rabbit trail,
06:26there may be some of you who tend to think
06:28what I thought for a long time,
06:29and I always thought that pain is always punishment.
06:34Think about it, to Jonah,
06:36the big fish seemed like nothing but a big problem.
06:42Here I am in the middle of, I didn't want this,
06:44I didn't call on this, this fish is a problem.
06:49But who provided the fish?
06:52The main character of the story,
06:53the Lord provided the fish.
06:57I wanna tell somebody here that sometimes
07:00what we call a problem, God calls provision.
07:04Sometimes God may provide in ways
07:07that we didn't choose and we didn't expect.
07:11And God provides a fish and it swallows Jonah,
07:14and Jonah never planned on being fish food.
07:18This isn't what I wanted.
07:20And what I know, because I know many of your stories,
07:23and I know just because of the number of you,
07:26there are many of you right now
07:27that you're in a similar place,
07:29you're going through something
07:30that you would have never, ever chosen.
07:33How did we get here?
07:35I didn't wanna be here in my marriage.
07:37I didn't wanna be in the middle of this faith crisis.
07:41This isn't what I wanted.
07:43I didn't choose to be in the belly of this mess.
07:47And I wanna remind you that our good God
07:50doesn't always give us what we want,
07:54but our God does give us what we need.
07:57And what we need most is always Him.
08:04Him.
08:06From the belly of a fish, Jonah remembered
08:11he needed the Lord.
08:15God always gives us what we need,
08:17and what we need most is Him.
08:21So the Lord provided a fish and swallowed Jonah up.
08:25He's by himself, he's about to drown.
08:28You can imagine in a situation like this,
08:30he can't, I mean, how long can he paddle,
08:33do whatever, how long can he do that?
08:35He is completely helpless.
08:38He couldn't do a single thing to save his life.
08:41He couldn't dog paddle or whatever for seven days.
08:44He couldn't do a thing.
08:46Whatever he was proud of in his life,
08:47maybe he, let's just say he had a great degree,
08:51college degree.
08:52His college degree couldn't save him.
08:54Maybe he had a lot of friends on Facebook, right?
08:57If we modernize it.
08:58All those friends on Facebook couldn't save him.
09:02Maybe he'd finally gotten his fully funded emergency fund
09:06and his savings account that he was proud of,
09:08it could not save him.
09:10Jonah got to the place where some of you are right now,
09:14and that is to the place where only the Lord could help him.
09:21Only the Lord could help him.
09:23On his own, he was completely helpless.
09:27But just because Jonah was helpless, he was not hopeless.
09:31There's a big difference.
09:33Just because he was helpless,
09:35didn't mean that he had run out of hope
09:38in the God who always gives us what we need.
09:42Now, was he in a mess?
09:43Dang straight.
09:45He's in big, big trouble.
09:47And some of you, unfortunately right now,
09:49you may be in a spot in your life
09:50where things are not going well right now.
09:53And you say like, my marriage, someone might say,
09:57is in bad shape.
09:59If God doesn't do something soon,
10:01I don't know what's gonna happen.
10:03You might say, my marriage is in trouble.
10:06Someone else might say, have you seen inflation?
10:11My paycheck hadn't caught up.
10:12Financially, we're in trouble.
10:15There are people close to me that I love
10:17that would say, we are in trouble with our health.
10:22Some of you, you got kids,
10:24and they're not a part of Switch right now.
10:26And your kids might be doing something crazy.
10:30Say, Mike, I got a child in trouble.
10:33I wanna say this, no matter why
10:35you might find yourself in trouble,
10:37it might be your fault, it might not be your fault.
10:38No matter what's going on, the Bible says in this,
10:42James 5, 13 says, is anyone among you in trouble?
10:46Say it aloud with me, let them pray.
10:50Is anybody here in trouble?
10:52Scripture says, let them pray.
10:56I wanna declare to you that if you are in trouble,
11:00it's time to pray.
11:03I'm gonna tell you again,
11:04if you are in trouble, it's time to pray.
11:09I'm gonna say it one more time
11:11for those of you in the back.
11:12Whenever you are in trouble,
11:14or even if you're not in trouble, it's time to pray.
11:17Somebody say, it's time to pray.
11:19Nudge your neighbor, tell him it's time to pray.
11:21Type in the comment section, it's time to pray.
11:23Notice what James doesn't say.
11:26James doesn't say when you're in trouble,
11:27it's time to worry.
11:29He doesn't say that.
11:30He doesn't say it's time to complain.
11:33He doesn't say it's time to write a long post
11:36and post it on social media,
11:37talking about all that's going on.
11:39He doesn't say it's time to blame everybody around.
11:41He says, when you are in trouble,
11:45it's time to pray.
11:46It's time to pray.
11:47What did Jonah pray when he was in trouble?
11:52Let me show you exactly what he prayed.
11:54Jonah 2.2, he said, in my distress, Jonah said,
11:58I called to the Lord and what did God do?
12:01He answered me.
12:03From deep in the realm of the dead, Jonah said,
12:06I called to God for help, God, and you listened to my cry.
12:12Jonah chapter one, he calls out.
12:15And the first thing he does is he prays to God.
12:19When you are in trouble, it's time to pray.
12:23It's time to pray.
12:24The rest of the chapter, chapter verse one, says he prays.
12:29Verse two, he starts to pray.
12:30All the way down, the next nine verses is his prayer.
12:36And I wanna show you his prayer.
12:37I won't read it all, but I'll just kind of start at the top.
12:40He prays, God, you hurled me into the depths,
12:43into the very heart of the seas,
12:44and the current swirled about me.
12:46All your waves and breakers swept over me.
12:48Go down to the next paragraph.
12:49He prays, the roots of the mountains, I sank down.
12:52The earth beneath barred me in forever.
12:55Go to the bottom.
12:55He says, but I, with shouts of grateful praise,
12:57will sacrifice to you.
12:58When I vowed, I will make good.
13:00I will say, salvation comes from the Lord.
13:02What I like about their prayer is like,
13:03that sounds spiritual.
13:05How many of you ever been around somebody
13:07that when they pray, they sound spiritual?
13:08Raise your hand.
13:09Type in the comment section.
13:10I know what you're talking about.
13:11I know what you're, they sound,
13:13if you could sponsor someone to pray,
13:15they'd be sponsored by the Holy Ghost.
13:17You know what I'm saying?
13:18Like when they pray, you just think like God is going,
13:22that's a good prayer.
13:24Sometimes I feel like when I'm praying,
13:26I'm like going, oh God, it's me again.
13:28And oh yeah, God, I'm trying not to lose focus
13:32because I often lose focus.
13:34Some people, when they pray, they really know how to pray.
13:37Do you know why they often know how to pray?
13:40What is the most effective thing that we can pray?
13:45In many cases, the most effective thing you can pray
13:49is actually pray the Word.
13:51You pray the Word.
13:52A lot of times when you look at someone and you're like,
13:53oh, I really like the way they're praying.
13:55You know what they're praying?
13:56They're actually praying God's Word.
13:57They're declaring the Word of God to God
14:01over their situation because the Word of God is living,
14:03active, powerful, sharper than any,
14:05the Word of God never returns void.
14:08One of the most powerful things that you can ever pray
14:10is you can pray the Word.
14:12And that is exactly what Jonah was doing.
14:18In Jonah 2, Jonah was praying.
14:21And what do you think he was praying?
14:24He was praying the Psalms.
14:26That's what he was doing.
14:27He was praying God's Word.
14:30He was praying the Psalms.
14:31And I wanna show you this
14:32because this could revolutionize your prayer life.
14:35Let me show you how he prayed the Psalm.
14:37In verse two, he said,
14:38I called the Lord and he answered me.
14:41Psalm 3, four said, I called out to the Lord
14:44and he answered me.
14:44He's praying the Psalms.
14:46And he answered me.
14:47He's praying the Psalm.
14:47I'll show you another one.
14:48He says, deep in the realm of the dead,
14:51God, I called you for help.
14:52Psalm 16, you will not abandon me in the realm of the dead.
14:56He said this, I have been banished from your sight.
14:59And the Psalm says, I'm cut off from your sight.
15:01He said this, the waters close over me.
15:04Psalm 69, the waters have come up to my neck.
15:07He said, those who cling to worthless idols.
15:10And Psalm says, I hate those who cling to worthless idols.
15:14Over and over again, what I have vowed,
15:17he said, I will make good.
15:18Psalm 116 says, I will fulfill my vows to the Lord.
15:22It's time to pray.
15:22It's time to pray.
15:23It's time to pray.
15:24It's time to pray.
15:25It's time to pray.
15:26It's time to pray.
15:27It's time to pray.
15:28Whenever you're in trouble, it's time to pray.
15:30And when you don't know what to pray, what should you pray?
15:33You pray the Word.
15:34Jonah prayed the Word of God.
15:37Some of you say, but I don't know the Word of God.
15:39Well, a really good place to start
15:41if you don't know the Word of God,
15:43open up the YouVersion Bible app,
15:46which by next year, toward the end of the year,
15:49will be on 1 billion devices around the world.
15:52Come on, somebody, let's give God some praise for that.
15:54Open up the YouVersion Bible app
15:56and just type in whatever you wanna pray about.
16:00You might just type in fear or anxiety
16:03or depression or whatever it is.
16:06And then God's Word will come up
16:08and you just start praying His Word.
16:10You might pray, God, I'm feeling anxious,
16:12so therefore I cast my cares on you, God,
16:15because you care for me.
16:18You might pray, God, help me not to be anxious.
16:20Your Word tells me not to be anxious about anything,
16:22but with everything, my prayer and petition,
16:24I submit my request to you and I thank you, God,
16:26that your Word promises me that the peace from heaven
16:28will guard my heart, my mind, my soul in Christ Jesus.
16:31God, your Word says you have not given me a spirit of fear,
16:35but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.
16:39God, I'm praying your Word, I'm believing your Word.
16:41Jonah cried out to the Lord.
16:44And the Lord listened to his cry.
16:46Jonah prayed and he prayed the Word of God.
16:49Spoiler alert, though.
16:52Jonah prayed and he said, God heard me.
16:57But if you look carefully,
16:58nothing happened immediately when he prayed.
17:04This encourages me so much
17:07because sometimes I get so frustrated with God's timing.
17:11Anybody else here ever get frustrated with God's timing?
17:14God, I'm telling you it's best now.
17:16And God says, you don't know what I know.
17:19I give it to you when it's best on my side, God says.
17:22He prayed in verse one.
17:25God heard him and there was no visible miracle.
17:29He prays in verse one and you don't see a visible miracle
17:32until the very end of chapter two in verse 10.
17:37You don't see the miracle in verse 10,
17:39which makes verse nine so much more meaningful.
17:43In verse nine, Jonah says this,
17:45but I, with shouts of grateful praise,
17:49with, I'm shouting to you, I'm worshiping you.
17:51I can't contain it.
17:52With shouts of grateful praise, I will sacrifice to you.
17:56He says, what I have vowed, I will make good.
17:58I will say to the Lord, salvation comes from the Lord.
18:02What's powerful about this
18:04is this is praise before the miracle.
18:08How many of you know it's easy to praise God
18:10after the miracle,
18:12but it takes faith to praise God before the provision.
18:17There is someone here and I don't know who you are,
18:21but you're gonna praise God with verse nine kind of faith.
18:25You may still be stuck in the belly,
18:27but your praise is real praise.
18:30You're praising before the provision.
18:32And this is what I'm doing right now,
18:34praying for my daughters, praying for their health,
18:38praying for healing, praying for miracles,
18:40praying for the provision and the power of God
18:42to do what I know he can do.
18:44And he hasn't done it yet.
18:46But with shouts of praise, by faith, I worship him,
18:50knowing he is a good God,
18:52that he hears the cries of our hearts
18:55and that I believe by faith that God will answer.
18:58This is praising God for who he is,
19:01not just for what he's done.
19:03This is verse nine kind of faith.
19:06Jonah continues in the very same verse.
19:09And then he says this.
19:10Then he says, what I have vowed, God, I will make good.
19:16I was running from you.
19:18I was disobeying you.
19:19I wasn't listening to you.
19:21But what I vowed, I will make good.
19:25I like this.
19:27At this point, Jonah didn't make a single excuse.
19:30He made it right.
19:32This is for somebody here.
19:35You're not doing what's right, right now.
19:39There's a part of you, you're being disobedient to God.
19:43It's a sin of commission.
19:44You're literally sinning against the word of God.
19:48Or it's a sin of omission,
19:49meaning God prompted you to do something
19:51and you didn't do it.
19:53Or you're just taking God for granted.
19:55You know him, you love him,
19:57but you put him on the shelf.
20:00You know you're not living in a way
20:03in some form of your life that's right.
20:06Jonah made it right.
20:07He made it right.
20:08He made it right.
20:09It's time for somebody here to stop blaming
20:11whatever you're blaming.
20:12Stop blaming whoever you're blaming and make a right.
20:16It's time to make a right.
20:18God, you want me to go?
20:20I'm gonna go.
20:23You want me to repent?
20:25I'm going to repent.
20:28You want me to apologize to someone that I wronged?
20:30I'm going to apologize.
20:32You want me to stop sinning sexually, God?
20:36I will stop dishonoring your word and sinning sexually.
20:40You want me to stop God?
20:41You want me to stop taking you for granted?
20:46It's time to make a right.
20:47It's time to make a right.
20:49What I vowed, I'll make right.
20:50Jonah prayed, and then in verse nine,
20:55Jonah praised.
20:57And finally, in verse 10,
20:59the last verse of chapter two says this,
21:03and the Lord commanded the fish
21:07and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
21:11Can we pause for a moment and say two things?
21:14Number one, that's amazing.
21:16And number two, that's gross.
21:19Can we just say it?
21:20I mean, come on,
21:21like God, he lived through the belly of the fish
21:24for three days, three nights,
21:25or he died and he rose from the dead, whatever it is.
21:27And then you vomit him out.
21:29That's amazing.
21:30And that's disgusting.
21:33I mean, imagine three days and three nights,
21:37and he's in there praying.
21:39Verse one, what's he doing?
21:41He's praying.
21:43Verse two, he's praying.
21:46Verse three, he kept praying.
21:49Verse four, he kept praying.
21:52Verse five, he kept praying.
21:54Day one, he kept praying.
21:55Evening one, he kept praying.
21:58Night one, he prayed.
21:59Morning two, he prayed.
22:01Midday two, he prayed.
22:03This is a message for somebody here,
22:05you've been praying for a long time
22:07and you're not seeing anything.
22:09I wanna remind you of the power and the principle of God,
22:12that while you're waiting, God is still working.
22:16While you're praying and while you're believing
22:19and while you're waiting, God is still working.
22:22Just because you don't see anything
22:25doesn't mean that God isn't still on the throne,
22:28because at the right time, God commanded the fish.
22:32At the right time, God commanded,
22:35at the right time, God commanded the fish
22:39and the fish vomited Jonah.
22:42At the right time.
22:43And this reminds us that when it's not God's time,
22:48you can't force it.
22:51And when it is God's time, you can't stop it.
22:55Our God is the good God.
22:57Our God is always on time.
23:08While you're waiting, our God is working.
23:11Verse one, and the Lord heard his prayer,
23:14but God didn't do what he asked him to do until verse 10.
23:19If you're praying and you're still praying
23:22and you're praying and you're still praying,
23:23I need this because I'm still praying.
23:26God, did you forget?
23:27God, have you heard me?
23:29He hears you the first time.
23:31And we're like the persistent widow in Luke 18.
23:33We just keep coming back.
23:35God, I'm just reminding you of your word.
23:36God, I just, by faith, I continue to believe.
23:39God, I know you hear the cries of your people.
23:43And at the right time, God commanded the fish.
23:45Now, three days and three nights.
23:51How many days was he in the belly of the fish?
23:53Three days and three nights.
23:56Raise your hand if you've ever heard the phrase
23:58three days and three nights somewhere before.
24:02Interesting.
24:03So Jonah was, he lived somewhere around 785 BC,
24:09like 750, 800 years before the birth of Christ.
24:15And here we see in the Old Testament a foreshadow
24:18of what Jesus talked about in the New Testament
24:21in Matthew chapter 12.
24:23When the Pharisees said, hey, Jesus, we want a sign.
24:26Give us a sign.
24:27We want a sign.
24:28And Jesus answered and said this,
24:30a wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign,
24:35but none will be given it except the sign
24:39of the prophet of Jonah.
24:42For Jonah was three days and three nights
24:45in the belly of a huge fish.
24:47So the son of man, that's Jesus,
24:50will be three days and three nights
24:52in the heart of the earth.
24:54When?
24:55After he becomes sin for us and dies on the cross,
24:59he is buried and does battle against the forces of hell.
25:04And three days later, three days and three nights,
25:07the stone is rolled away.
25:09And when the women look in there,
25:11the tomb is empty.
25:12Why?
25:13Because our God raised Jesus from the dead.
25:16And remember what Jonah said.
25:18Remember what he said.
25:20He said, where does salvation come from?
25:22Salvation comes from the Lord.
25:26When Jonah didn't deserve it,
25:28when he had been running from God, God saved him.
25:32When Jonah couldn't save himself, God saved him.
25:36And everything in the Old Testament points
25:39to our need for Jesus today.
25:42Because when we didn't deserve it,
25:45God sent Jesus when we were still dead in our sins
25:50because of his love.
25:51And when we couldn't save ourselves, Jesus saved us.
25:57I don't know who this is for, but there's somebody here,
26:00your life is a big old mess right now.
26:03And maybe you're a little bit like me.
26:06You need a little extra grace.
26:08You need a little extra forgiveness
26:11because maybe like me, or maybe like Jonah,
26:13at some point you've disobeyed God's command
26:17and you've distrusted God's Word
26:20and you've dishonored God's name.
26:22But even though Jonah turned and ran away from God,
26:28God still saved Jonah.
26:32And you're gonna see next week when you better come back
26:35because chapter three is even better than chapter two.
26:38You're gonna see in chapter three
26:40that God used a reluctant and disobedient prophet
26:46for his glory to reach some people.
26:49And think about how all this went down.
26:51This is so powerful to me.
26:53The fish vomited Jonah up.
26:59I love that.
27:00You have no idea how much I love it.
27:03You guys up here in the front,
27:03you're gonna love this so much
27:04because there's nothing clean about his salvation.
27:10I'm saved.
27:12Fish mucus, fish bile.
27:16That's gross.
27:18There was nothing clean about his salvation.
27:22And some of you, you've been through some stuff.
27:26It's not clean.
27:28It's not pretty.
27:29It's nasty.
27:31And the same way God was still working in him,
27:33God is still working in you.
27:35And I want you to hear it.
27:36I want you to feel it.
27:37I want you to believe it.
27:38I want you to take it deep down into your spirit
27:40that no matter where you are,
27:48no matter what you've done,
27:52God has grace for you.
27:57And God still wants to use you.
28:01And in the same way the sailors looked on and said,
28:03if God is that powerful and that good,
28:07then I want to serve him.
28:09I want to fear that God.
28:11I want to tell you that our God,
28:13his grace is bigger than you can imagine.
28:17And his love for you is deeper than you can ever realize.
28:21And a God that good is a God that we want to serve.
28:27If your life is messy right now,
28:29welcome to the party.
28:30That's the perfect kind of person that God loves to save.
28:34And the fish vomited him out.
28:37His salvation wasn't clean, but it was real.
28:40And salvation comes from the Lord.
28:44So Father, today we ask that your Holy Spirit
28:48would do a deep work in the hearts of people who need it.
28:53God, do a deep work in my heart.
28:56I want to talk to those of you
28:58that might be in a little bit of trouble right now.
29:00You're going through a hard time.
29:01It could be somebody that you love.
29:03It could be somebody, it could be you.
29:06And you need a miracle, but you're not in verse 10 yet.
29:10There's no miracle, and you're praying right now.
29:13I want to give you the chance maybe to just worship God
29:16with the verse nine kind of faith.
29:19Before verse nine kind of faith,
29:20we're gonna have verse one kind of prayer.
29:22And that is we're gonna go before God in prayer.
29:24And we're gonna believe for miracles.
29:26We serve a God who says all things are possible with Him.
29:30And then we're gonna worship Him
29:31with verse nine kind of faith.
29:34If you're going through something right now,
29:36and you really need the presence and the power of God,
29:39let's take it to Him, and we're gonna pray.
29:41You've got some area in your life, you need a miracle,
29:44you need the presence, you need the power of God.
29:46For you, for someone that you love,
29:48would you lift up your hands right now?
29:49All of our churches, lift up your hands.
29:51Online, you can just type in the comment section,
29:53I need the presence, I need the power of God.
29:56Father, we come to you just like Jonah did
29:59when he didn't deserve it.
30:00Because we don't deserve anything good from you.
30:03And humbly, God, we just ask
30:05that you hear the cries of our hearts.
30:07And we thank you, God, that your Word tells us
30:09that the faithful, effectual, passionate,
30:12and fervent prayer availeth much.
30:16God, we cry out to you, we pray for marriages to be healed.
30:20God, we pray for relationships to be restored.
30:23God, we pray for financial provision.
30:25God, we pray for physical miracles,
30:28and we pray for healing, God.
30:29We pray that you would show up, and you would show off,
30:32and that your miracles would be so real
30:34that everyone would know that this is
30:35because of the goodness of God, we trust you.
30:38And now, God, even though we may not see the miracle
30:41in verse 10, we praise you with verse nine kind of faith,
30:44God, with shouts of joy, with adoration,
30:47with praise and worship, we tell you, God, you are good.
30:50We worship you, God, not just for what you do,
30:53but for who you are.
30:55And God, even before we see the provision,
30:58we will praise you, because you are worthy of our praise.
31:04You're worthy of our praise.
31:05This week, I wanna just encourage you, just worship him.
31:08Worship him with verse nine kind of faith.
31:11We praise you before we see the provision.
31:14And then, as we're talking about prayer,
31:16there is one prayer that somebody here needs to pray.
31:20The very first prayer we pray to God,
31:23Scripture tells us this, let me just be real, real clear.
31:26All of us, we're distant from God
31:30because of our own sinfulness.
31:31Have you ever done something wrong?
31:33We all have, and what happens?
31:34We feel guilty, we feel ashamed, we feel like,
31:36oh my gosh, I don't feel close to God.
31:39Here's the good news, that God became one of us
31:42in the person of his son, Jesus.
31:44God became flesh.
31:45Jesus, perfect in every way, was without sin.
31:50He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice.
31:52How long was he in the earth?
31:53Three days and three nights, just like Jonah,
31:55prophesied 800 years before.
31:58And on the third day, when the stone was rolled away,
32:00Jesus came out because of the perfect work,
32:03the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
32:05Now, the Bible tells us this, that anyone who calls
32:10on the name of the Lord will be saved.
32:14What are we gonna do today?
32:15Some of you, you're in a mess right now.
32:16You're about to have a salvation.
32:18It may not be pretty, it may be messy, but guess what?
32:20It's from God, salvation comes from the Lord.
32:22Anyone, doesn't matter who you are,
32:24doesn't matter what you've done.
32:25When you turn from your sins, when you cry out to Jesus,
32:27he hears your prayers, he is amazing.
32:30He becomes your savior, he saves you,
32:32not because you're good, because he's good,
32:33not because you deserve it, but because of his perfect work.
32:36And so today at all of our churches,
32:38there are some of you, this is your moment.
32:40Today is the day of your salvation.
32:42Salvation comes from the Lord.
32:44You can't be good enough, you don't deserve it.
32:46In the same way Jonah didn't deserve it,
32:48God saved him anyway.
32:49His name is Jesus, and anyone, including you,
32:52who calls on him would be saved.
32:54Today at all of our churches, those who need him,
32:56those of you online, I need him.
32:57We're stepping away from our sin, we're stepping to Jesus.
33:00We're calling on the name of the Lord.
33:02If that's you today, Jesus, I call on you, save me.
33:04I give you my life, that's your prayer.
33:06Put your hands high right now, all over the place.
33:08Lift up your hands and say yes, praise God for you.
33:11Others today say yes, Jesus, I need you.
33:13Put your hands up and say yes, I surrender.
33:16Right back over there and over here, God bless you guys.
33:18Oh, praise God, and up here as well.
33:20Others today say Jesus, I need your prayers.
33:23Right back over here and here, praise God for you.
33:26Online, just type in the comments section,
33:28I am surrendering my life to Jesus, I'm surrendering.
33:32Would you pray today with those around you?
33:33Pray, heavenly Father, I give you my life.
33:37Jesus, forgive my sins, save me.
33:42Salvation comes from you.
33:44Make me brand new, be the Lord of my life.
33:48Fill me with your Spirit so I could know you
33:52and serve you and be faithful to you.
33:56Thank you for new life.
33:58I give you all of mine.
34:00In Jesus' name, I pray.
34:02Somebody praise God with verse nine kind of faith,
34:05verse 10 kind of faith, praise God for who He is.
34:08I don't know about you,
34:09but I needed to hear that message today.
34:11I hope that it encouraged and challenged you.
34:14We can learn so much from listening to God's voice
34:16and loving people the way that He's loved us.
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